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Australian Timeshare Industry Could Face Huge Shakeup

The Australian government is looking into whether timeshare companies should be allowed to continue paying sales agents’ commissions on their sales.

The government want to review the quality of advice given to consumers during timeshare presentations. They also want to eliminate bad practice in the timeshare industry, including lengthy, poor value contracts, high pressure sales tactics which end in consumers taking out unaffordable loans.

The Australian Financial Complaints Authority receives over 170 complaints a year from timeshare owners. They say complaints are centred around the mis-selling of timeshare, where sales staff have failed to disclose cooling off rights, failure to … Read more

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The 12 signs your email could be under attack

Cybersecurity experts have revealed a list of the 12 most common subject lines in phishing emails targeting businesses.

No email security solution is 100% effective. Hackers put a lot of effort into developing attacks that circumvent email protection and end up in users’ inboxes. Cybersecurity company Barracuda conducted an investigation over a three month period and analysed 360,000 phishing emails. They found that, in many cases, the language contained in the subject line of the email mimicked popular terms in the workplace. This makes the recipient think that the email is urgent and requires an immediate response. It is assumed … Read more

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Five Men Jailed Over Fraud Offences

Five fraudsters have been jailed for a total of 17 years and nine months, for conning susceptible victims out of nearly £1 million.

The five men were facing charges of conspiracy to defraud and money laundering. The court heard how, between 2013 and 2015, the group of men conned more than 50 victims into a fraud and money laundering scam. The men would cold-call elderly and vulnerable people, introduce themselves under fake names and claim they were brokers with proficiency in fine wine.

They operated from an industrial estate based in Great Dunmow, and claimed to work for three companies, … Read more

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Scammed out of $63,000 on a timeshare that was never built

A 68 year old retired couple from Arizona, U.S. paid more than $63,000 for a timeshare condominium in Mexico. The couple were planning on spending a couple of weeks there every year, however, the couple learned the resort was never built.

It all started in 2004, when the couple invested $30,000 in a two bedroom timeshare condo in the Grand Mayan resort in Mexico. The developers told the couple the timeshare would be ready in a couple of years, the wait turned into 13 years and the couple were forced to continue paying maintenance fees, which had reached $900 a … Read more

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Romance Fraud leaves woman penniless

Michelle Szombara has now been declared bankrupt after meeting a man on a dating website. Alan Clarkson stole more than £60,000 from Ms Szombara and her parents. Clarkson turned up at her house one day with a few items of clothing and did not leave for four years. He then started to claim he was penniless, in debt and could not access his bank accounts.

To help legitimise his con, Clarkson created fake emails from financial organisations and produced fake paperwork to fool her into believing he had money in another bank account and could pay her back.

Ms Szombara … Read more

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Scammer Steals $10,000 From Grandfather

A grandfather from Australia has been scammed out of $10,000 by a refined fraudster who knew all of his personal details.

The 77 year old retired grandfather, from Australia, was called on his landline by scammers claiming to be from his broadband provider. They told him he was due a payment of $300 in compensation for his service not working properly. The caller then proceeded to pass his call onto a female agent who claimed to work for the network and would process his $300 payment.

The scammer knew all of his personal details and was able to access his … Read more

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Warning Over Springtime Scammers

Fraudsters are targeting elderly, vulnerable and young people who may have less experience of the tax system. During April and May, fraudsters target taxpayers with refund scams, by Feigning to be from HMRC, either by email or text. This coincides with genuine tax rebates at this time of year, made by HMRC and makes the con seem more legitimate as people may be expecting to hear from the tax service.

They ask recipients to provide bank details through a fake government website which harvests private information and is used to steal money from peoples bank accounts. To lure them in … Read more

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Man protests mis-sold loans, starts hunger strike outside bank headquarters

A businessman has begun a hunger strike opposite the headquarters of Clydesdale Bank to protest about the way he claims it has treated him.

John Guidi, 63 from Glasgow, is sleeping in a tent in the city centre outside of the Clydesdale headquarters. Mr Guidi blames the bank for removing funding from his once successful property business and then selling his loans to another company.

Mr Guidi has been a loyal customer of Clydesdale bank for over twelve years and had built up a portfolio of over 150 rental properties. He says the bank withdrew his funding in 2012 and … Read more

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Instagram and Snapchat users targeted in extortion scam

Victims are being tricked into revealing Two Factor Authentication (2FA) codes and extorted for money with the threat of having their personal photos shared publicly if they don’t pay up.

Action Fraud has received multiple reports about Snapchat and Instagram accounts being endangered as a result of users being tricked into handing over 2FA codes to fraudsters. The victims are then extorted for money with the threat of having their personal photos shared publicly.

Action Fraud are telling users to not respond to messages that ask for your login details or two-factor authentication (2FA) codes. These can be used to … Read more

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Men sentenced for selling customer data

An AXA insurance employee has been convicted of stealing customer data and selling it to a claims management company.

Shane Jerman was taking photographs of customer data and sending them via WhatsApp to his co-defendant Stuart McGill. Investigators found that Jerman was sending McGill roughly 100 lines of data to him each week. In Return, McGill was sending payments of up to £650 to Jerman.

According to The City Of London Police’s Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department (IFED), which worked closely with AXA during the investigation, Jerman and McGill made approximately £18,250 between them.

IFED investigated McGill’s accounts and found payments… Read more

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